roman
#275 – Aericus Amor
Born 41 AD in Rome, Aericus is a senator masquerading as an actor to be closer to his forbidden love, a pleb Philetus, star of Virgil’s Aeneid.
RomanPunks is a retrofuturistic, cyberpunk derivative world-building project inspired by fine art, history and the cryptopunk movement.
A total of 1,000 RomanPunk characters have been frozen in time and minted as Non Fungible Tokens (NFTs) on the Ethereum, WAX, Polygon and Algorand blockchains.
RomanPunk characters are comprised of commoners and famous individuals based on Roman history, art history and pop culture.
The basis for RomanPunk lore and backstories is exhaustively researched by history/sci-fi buff and co-founder, Punktavian.
All images are drawn by hand by woman artist and co-founder, Cleopunktra, without the aid of AI or generative tools.
RomanPunks came into existence through early minting on OpenSea, promoting on Twitter and building a Discord community through giveaways and engagement. The idea of a cyberpunk-derivative ‘RomanPunk’ theme was in our heads for years, but it was the success of the Cryptopunks that became the catalyst for project conception and launch.
After a hard working first 60 days spent networking and attracting new collectors to RomanPunks, our community had begun to flourish and sales increased. We began to offer our collectors an opportunity to battle their NFTs in a tournament bracket powered by dice rolls.
Encouraged by the tight knit community and the carbon-neutral blockchain with lightning fast and low cost transactions, we launched 'romanpunksio' collection on WAX Blockchain as the first step to expand the backstories of our RomanPunk characters and the baseline for future development of a card game.
RomanPunks integrated with Chainlink Labs to utilize VRF (Verified Randomness Function) to host a giveaway raffle for our holders. We developed a smart contract on Ethereum which guarantees true random number selection on chain and can be used for a wide range of functions that require random selection.
After much anticipation in the community, we released our first WAX NFT card 'pack' through the Neftyblocks platform, which sold out in less than a week.
We launched our Twitch channel and begun building an audience by offering numerous giveaways of WAX NFTs from our collection, as well as giving participants a chance to win RomanPunk ETH NFT airdrops for taking top spot at the end of the 'season'.
As firm believers in a metaverse future and land owners in The Sandbox, we undertook to build the RomanPunk Colosseum on 1x1 land and entered our experience "Gladiator Bloodsport" into a GameJam contest. We will continue to build the Colosseum into a PVP arena and social hub once The Sandbox offers creators the ability to do so.
Thanks to the user friendly tools offered by NeftyBlocks, we launched a comprehensive blending system on WAX, allowing our collectors to blend the common NFTs they earn in our Discord RPG up into Legendary famous NFTs through the use of blending 'coins' that can also be earned on the Discord as reward for helping to promote the RomanPunks project.
We launched the VX collection on Polygon. Each owner of an ETH NFT gets their voxel equivalent airdropped to them, and these NFTs can be redeemed for official NFTs on The Sandbox Marketplace once available.
All 1,000 original, unique 1:1 RomanPunk characters hand drawn by Cleopunktra and minted on OpenSea.
The RomanPunk WAX NFT Trading Card Fighter Pack Series II consists of 3 NFTs randomly selected from over 236 characters.
Upcoming plans for RomanPunks include:
Below is a comprehensive and searchable directory of all 1,000 RomanPunk Characters.
Born 41 AD in Rome, Aericus is a senator masquerading as an actor to be closer to his forbidden love, a pleb Philetus, star of Virgil’s Aeneid.
Born in 48 AD in Ravenna, Eunice is an expert knife fighter who is known to have killed dozens of men in self defense before joining the IV Legion. Loyal to Otho, she participated in the assassination of Emperor Galba, but was later forced to flee into an interdimensional portal to escape capture by Vitellius.
Born 145 BC in Sinope, Zoi and her brother Pythodoris were servants of Pluto, God of the Underworld, who fought for Mithridates the Great, were slain by the Romans and sent to purgatory where they are forced to fight an endless battle against impossible odds.
Born 103 BC in Perinthus, Deif was a slave who toiled as an interdimensional drug mule until freed by his degenerate equestrian master who had an epiphany on Ayahuasca. Now Deif procures a cornucopia of psychedelic substances for Elektrosar, the timeless EDM festival that runs sempiternally in the ancient Hanging Gardens of Babylon.
Born in 88 AD in Salona, Callistrate led a cohort of vampire and zombie hunters deep into the heart of Dacia on orders by Trajan to destroy the scourge; however, the soldiers never returned and are believed to have been transported to a distance time and place.
Born in 109 BC in Coracesium, Calypso was an infamous pirate queen who wreaked havoc on Roman shipping until she was captured by Pompey and sentenced to fight in the gladiator pits of Rome.
Born in 355 AD on the shores of the Black Sea, Hilda Cixilo was raised in blood by warrior parents who trained them in battles against the Huns. After collecting 80 heads in the Battle of Adrianople, Hilda went on to distinguish herself in Mastaura as an undefeated gladiator.
Born 2029 AD in Ebusus, Cassian is an interdimensional raver who drifts between realities, constantly chasing the next great EDM show. His path leads him to Elektrosar, a timeless bass-heavy festival that runs sempiternally in the ancient Hanging Gardens of a 25th-century Babylonian utopia. During a Chemical Sisters set, Cassian exchanges kandy with the unattainable PLUR princess Saba Nebunoida, a moment that turns his world upside down and sparks an unhealthy obsession.
Born 2025 AD in Neo-Volubilis, daughter of a textile magnate, Samia founded a clothing design empire after using an interdimensional portal to gain inspiration for fashion designs across time and space.
Born in 274 AD in Trento, Rolfus was part of the mysterious Cthulu Cohort that, according to legend, disappeared in a cave and returned as cybernetic drones believe to be puppeteered by an extradimensional alien force loyal to Emperor Diocletian.
Born 405 AD in Pelso, Tina was the illegitimate daughter of Godigisel and a servant woman. Interdimensional traveler and half sister to King Genseric, she led Vandal troops razing cities across Spain, Africa and Italy, culminating in the great Sack of Rome in 455 AD.
Born in 404 AD in Corduba, Alaviv Goar, illegitimate son of King Genseric, fought bravely with the Vandal hordes as they sacked Africa, but was later forced to live a life of exile as a gladiator in the colosseum of Thysdrus in Carthage.
Born 2067 AD in Scandia, when Runa is not working at a lumber mill crafting Doric columns out of fir, ze performs stand-up comedy mocking gods and emperors; however, one scathing joke about Nero got zir exiled to the asteroid 4660 Nereus where ze toils and provides comic relief at an ore mining colony.
Born 1960 AD in Valentia, Noira is a courtesan at Café Cypherpunk, a neon oasis where intergalactic metaverse denizens come to refuel and privately trade whispers of their escapades. A quiet observer by nature, Noira accidentally overhears a conspiracy that could destabilize the space-time continuum. Now, she’s marked by shadowy forces intent on silencing her, forcing her to navigate a world of intrigue far beyond her comprehension. Her only hope of survival lies in the hands of a dimension-hopping protector who may or may not arrive in time.
Born in 44 BC in Eblana, Conchar is a POW captured in Britain and forced to fight as a gladiator. With an unblemished record of wins, he drew the attention of time traffickers and was portaled to the 28th century AD to fight in the cybercolosseum.
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